Airtel has reported 40.60 million data subscribers in India, a 5% QoQ growth, out of which 4.01 million are 3G subscribers, a growth of 8% QoQ for the quarter ended 30th September 2012. 21.8% of Airtel’s mobile user base uses data services, with a total of 15,879 million MBs (Megabytes) of data usage being reported on the network, compare to 12,566 MB usage that it reported in the last quarter. Data ARPU increased 9% QoQ at Rs 43 per user; data usage per user was at 133 MB, and data realisation per MB was 32.4 paise. The company has 20,333 3G cell sites in India. The company did not disclose the number of 4G subscribers. It had launched 4G services in Karnataka, in the last quarter.

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Financials: Airtel reported total revenues of Rs 20,273 crore for the quarter, up 17.4% year on year, India mobile data revenues up 77% year on year for the quarter ended 30th September 2012. Its consolidated EBITDA was Rs 6,351 crore, up by 9.2% year on year, with EBITDA margin at 31.3%, improved on a sequential basis, aided by a favourable outcome on an outstanding dispute in India pertaining to inter-connect agreements, according to the company. Net profit for the quarter was Rs 721 crore, compared to Rs 1027 crore profit that the company registered in Q2-FY12.

According to the company,Value added services, which include revenue from services apart from voice, data & others viz. SMS, MMS, Ring Back Tones, Airtel Talkies, Music on Demand etc. contributed to approximately 10.1% of the total revenues of the segment. The Company said that it had taken a leadership position in meeting the TRAI guidelines on provision of VAS services, resulting in seeking prior confirmation from customers before activation of VAS services, which has resulted in a decline in VAS revenue compared to the previous quarter.

Note that with effect from 1st April, 2012, Airtel is reporting Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services or 4G services as part of ‘Mobile Services India and South Asia’. It was reported earlier under ‘Telemedia Services’.

Airtel Mobile KPI’s For India

A few things noticeable here:

- An increase in the VLR percentage for the quarter, Airtel has crossed the 91% bracket, on par with Idea Cellular. Together these two companies have the highest percentages of active users in the Indian market.- Decline in net additions: Airtel reported a negative growth of 1.38 million subscribers.- Increase in traffic: Slight increase in minutes of use- Minor Decline in Rate per minute: This is unexpected, since telecom operates have taken a rate hike over the last few quarters.- Minor Change in churn: One would have expected churn to decline, and for customers to port in to Airtel from other new telecom operators, after the Supreme Court verdict in the 2G case.

Telemedia

Airtel’s Telemedia business is seeing minor growth – the revenues have increased a bit quarter on quarter at Rs 952.9 million vs Rs 944.2 million, despite an increase in ARPU to Rs 971 from Rs 962, and the customer growth continues to be flat. At the same time, Telemedia EBITDA increased to Rs 403.90 crore from Rs 380.9 crore, reversing the decline. Airtel reported its broadband (DSL) customer base at 1.380 million.